August 11, 2014

PROBLEMS WE DON'T WANT TO SOLVE

My mom tells me that in Chattanooga, Tennessee they just give homeless people a one-way bus ticket somewhere so that they just pop up in another city and become their problem. Maybe it would be easier and cheaper to just deal with getting them a home.

A new study shows that regional governments spend as much as $31,000 a year per homeless person (on "the salaries of law-enforcement officers to arrest and transport homeless individuals – largely for nonviolent offenses such as trespassing, public intoxication or sleeping in parks – as well as the cost of jails stays, emergency-room visits and hospitalization for medical and psychiatric issues"), when getting each homeless person a house and a case worker to supervise their needs would cost just $10,000 per person.